Seiyo's Haunted House Extravanganza
by Usagii-chan
Summary: I loved Halloween; the sweets, the costumes... everything except the haunted house. That just wasn't for me - too many bad memories. Then again, who had ever cared what I thought? Amu and the others certainly didn't. Where had they disappeared off to anyway? Here I was now, left in charge of a supposedly 'haunted house'... Not that I, Rima the Ice Queen was scared. Gulp.


**I wanted to do a one-shot, and this was all I could think of; a late rimahiko Halloween one-shot**. **Hope you like it!**

* * *

**Seiyo's Haunted House Extravaganza**

"HAPPY HALLOWEEN-DESU!" was Su's enthusiastic and quite frankly, ear-splitting welcome when I opened the glass door of the Royal Garden.

I smiled in return; a genuine, ear-to-ear to grin which seemed to elicit shock from the others, who were in the middle of preparing their Halloween costumes.

I loved Halloween; it was my favourite holiday by far. Christmas was cool, 'cos you got presents, same for birthdays. But at Halloween, you got to scare people, and dress up. Two of my favourite things.

Not to mention, the trick-or-treating which the younger members in our neighbour did every year. I had always wanted to take part, but Mama and Papa would never let me, even when it was with a group of kids. That was why I was determined to at least go this year and see what all the fuss was about - I mean it wasn't as if I looked sixteen either, so I'd easily fit in with the Seiyo Elementary kids. Hehehe.

This Halloween was going to be awesome, especially since the school principal, Tsukasa-san, had asked us (as senior Guardians) to oversee and basically run this year's version of Seiyo High's annual 'Haunted House Extravaganza'. This meant organising the temporary renovation of Seiyo High's old science block into a ginormous haunted house. And boy, was it gonna be the scariest house anyone had ever seen - simply because I was on the management team.

* * *

"I like your costume Rima-tan!" Yaya squealed, trying to hug me with what looked like a cardboard sceptre adorned with jelly beans and gummi bears.

"Thanks. Yaya, what's that?" I asked, gesturing to the sceptre, and then to the rest of Yaya, who was wearing a frilly tutu with yet more gummi bears dangling off it, and thick pink tights. Not to mention a frilly silver crown and fairy wings.

"It's my Halloween costume!" Yaya shouted dramatically.

"You do know Halloween costumes are s'posed to be scary..." I sweatdropped, but Yaya either didn't hear or chose to ignore me, flouncing off to help Kukai with what looked masses of loose toilet roll.

This year's costumes were certainly shaping up to be quite good.

Amu was a cat - no prizes for guessing where that idea came from, with a black-eared alice band, face paint, a black skirt and jumper, and even a highly unorthodox-looking tail (suspiciously resembling a pair of her mother's tights stuffed with newspaper). She was at first very proud of her outfit, but quickly became miffed when Ikuto dropped by and it turned out - surprise, surprise - that he was a cat too. Albeit with less effort, although he and Amu together made a nice kitty pair.

I learnt Yaya was indeed, a sweet fairy, and seemed oblivious to the true meaning of a Halloween costume. At least she was enthusiastic about it. Kairi, after much deliberation and reluctance to dress up, had been cajoled by Yaya to become a 'stupid person'. Not exactly a costume, this involved ditching the heavy books, wearing contacts, smoothing his hair back and wearing a beanie hat. Also a lot of him going around and halfheartedly announcing things like "Pie is just a food!" and "Hong Kong is the capital of China!". I personally thought his appearance resembled more of a drunk hipster, than a 'stupid person' (whatever that was).

The reason for Kukai's involvement with toilet paper was that he was a zombie, and had somehow confused it with being a mummy. Aided by an irritated Utau (dressed as a vampire - think Edward Cullen meets Sailor Moon), he was now a 'mumbie'; some parts covered in toilet paper, others smeared with fake-looking blood.

Poor Tadase was a ghost, who seemed more afraid of his own costume than anyone else's. I gathered he wasn't exactly a fan of Halloween, and decided to calm his nerves by muttering "Prince", every five seconds. It didn't really work.

I, of course, was a witch, but not the sort you'd find in _The Wizard Of Oz_. I had my hat, broomstick, black dress, and Mama had even let me put black highlights in my pigtailed hair with wash-off (of course!) hairspray. I was intending to use the broomstick to hit Nagihiko with.

Speaking of Nagihiko, he didn't seem to be present amongst the carnage of the Halloween preparations.

I managed to track down Amu by her lopsided cat's ears, helping Ikuto string up a plastic ghost.

"Where's Nagihiko?" I said, and she answered, with her mouth half-full of Haribo Scary Sweet Mix (courtesy of Yaya),

"Outside talking to chairma- I mean, Tsukasa-san."

I thanked her and then slipped outside and around the Royal Garden to the wide, paved patio at the back. I could see Tsukasa-san and Nagihiko standing together, the elegance of Tsukasa's stance offset by a large black bandana wrapped round Nagihiko's head, obscuring most of his beaded hair.

"Lemme guess," I drawled to alert him of my presence; "You're a pirate!"

"Rima!" he exclaimed, coming over and knocking me playfully on the side of the head.

"Careful," I chastised, "You'll knock my hat off."

"Are you the Wicked Witch of the West?" he chuckled, and then laughed even louder when he saw my unimpressed face. When he moved his head from side to side the beads in his hair jangled and the fake parrot on his shoulder kept being knocked from side to side.

I couldn't help from laughing along with him.

We were interrupted by Tsukasa-san, who came over and greeted me warmly. He informed me about how the others were working really hard to get the haunted house up and running, and how it should be open in around ten minutes. Then he excused himself, and left very politely. He always reminded me so much of Tadase, but with an edge. I admired him greatly for it.

Nagihiko and I headed back inside.

* * *

The charas were becoming overexcited, as they did every year, about the arrival of Halloween.

Tadase had already had to break up a potential fight between Kiseki and Pepe, over a lollipop shaped like a bat. Su was positively delirious from excitement and Ran had muscle spasms from constantly waving her pompoms around. Kusukusu, thankfully had lost her voice from too much shouting, so she at least was quiet.

It wasn't until around five minutes before the haunted house opened, incidentally, that we realised all the charas were missing. Now, I saw this as a blessing, but Amu didn't agree. She was still anxious whenever they went off, probably remembering that incident with Nikaidou-sensei all those years ago.

"This isn't the time to be disappearing!" she said, wringing her hands.

"They've probably gone to explore the haunted house," Ikuto said quietly, and Amu seemed to accept that.

* * *

The house was finally open. It seemed to be an instant hit, since there were reams and reams of kids in their costumes all queuing right to the entrance of Seiyo High. Thankfully, the school wasn't too far from Seiyo Elementary, so we were able to hurry over in groups and open up the house.

I had declined an invitation to help set up the house, since, truth be told - I wasn't a fan of dark places. Especially scary dark places. Too many bad memories.

So Amu put me in charge of handling entrance fees. It wasn't the most exciting of jobs, especially when you had hyperactive teenagers dressed as ghosts and vampires thrusting handfuls of loose change into your face. Time for Rima's 'I'm not bothered' face, which seemed to scare a lot of them off. Maybe not then.

I had been there about fifteen minutes, and was in the middle of giving change to a very grumpy-faced old women (or was it a kid in a witch mask?) when I saw a line of small, suspiciously chara-shaped creatures drifting across the top of the queue. Before I could make any exclamation or capture their attention they had drifted off in the direction of the haunted house.

I decided it was best to not say anything. They, being such tiny things, couldn't cause any trouble anyway.

Boy was I wrong.

* * *

Exactly five minutes later, the first scream came.

I heard someone in the queue say, "That must be some good haunted house!" but to me it seemed a little off. Like it hadn't be caused by one of the pranks inside the haunted house.

I looked around from my perch on the tall stool in front of the entrance stall, and saw Utau hurrying down towards me, her cape fluttering delicately behind. When she reached the stall she gave me an imperious look, and draped her arms across the top of it.

"Urgh, I hate running," she said, and in response to my puzzled look continued,

"Oh right. Amu sent me to say there's been a problem with the house. Apparently people are being scared by things floating outside the house. No guesses for what those 'things' are. Anyway, I've been instructed to mind here while you go and man the house entrance; Amu has to see what the matter is."

Great, I'd been promoted.

I wondered, as I made my way to the house (cursing the wind along the way for repeatedly knocking off my witch's hat) why Amu had sent Utau. Why couldn't she do the menial task of admitting people into an old science block that purported to be 'the scariest experience of your life (so far)'?

Looking back, I found my answer. The minute Utau had put down her cape, and shook her hair out, there were immediate cries of "That's Hoshina Utau!" and "_The _Hoshina Utau?!" causing a mass of people to scurry towards and surround the stall, thrusting money and pieces of paper at the poor girl, who seemed quite unfazed.

I grinned; Amu obvously had good marketing strategies.

* * *

At the house, I found Amu, Ikuto and Yaya. Kukai and Kairi were off selling tickets. Nagihiko was in charge of finding refreshments for the staff, and had gone to the local shop.

"Where's Tadase?" I asked, and Amu blinked worriedly at me,

"He went to see what was scaring people off inside the house and hasn't come back!" I thought it was unlikely Tadase had volunteered to go by himself, and Ikuto's grin only furthered my suspicions.

Yaya was jumping off the walls and annoying everyone, so Amu finally sent her to the house to look for Tadase.

And so it went like this.

Yaya did not come back. Amu sent Ikuto. When Ikuto didn't return, Amu left, with strict instructions to me to mind the entrance. Kairi and Kukai came back and they took turns to go inside and then also disappear. It was quite funny to me.

Well not that funny, since after a while I became slightly worried when no one was reappearing. Only _slightly _worried.

I was tempted myself to enter the door and see where they were. Only a little step I told myself; I didn't have to go the full way in. I cautiously hopped off my stool and took teeny steps towards the dusty, and what seemed to me to be towering, doors. Opening them slightly, I peeked inside.

No one was currently queueing up to go inside, since it was around 4:30pm and starting to get dark, so most kids had left to go trick-or-treating. I envied them.

I could only hear my breathing when I poked my head around the door, and it was pitch black too, which didn't help.

"Amu?" I called. "Yaya?" "...Tadase?" I even offered the darkness, but it just swallowed my words up and rendered my miserable efforts of locating the others obsolete.

I grumbled to myself and stepped fully inside; in my haste forgetting that doors couldn't stay open by themselves. Oops. They promptly shut themselves with a _bang, _leaving me in the dark.

To be honest, I wasn't too scared at first. It was only when a strange hollow squeaking sound started, that I could feel sweating beading on my forehead. It wasn't even the sound that was making me nervous; more the memories it conjured up, of a man in black tightening sweaty ropes around my wrists.

I rubbed them unconsciously, and gritted my teeth. Wasn't going to show I was scared. Wasn't wasn't wasn't was-

The door opened a smidge. A bandana-covered head peeked through, bringing warm, yellow light with it. A pair of concerned amber eyes which crinkled when they smiled - the one person I was glad to see; Nagihiko.

He held up a lantern and slipped inside, holding a bag full of delicious looking rolls and pastries. My stomach rumbled and he handed me one without a word.

"What are you doing in here, alone?" he enquired and I replied simply, while munching,

"Y'know, exploring." It didn't have the effect I'd wanted, since my voice broke on the last syllable, and prompted by this I explained about the others disappearing. He only seemed slightly concerned, and this made me feel like an idiot for being scared.

The squeaking sound started up in the gap in our conversation, and I gripped Nagihiko's arm in sudden fear. He laughed in response and pointed to a latch on one of the doors, illuminated by the lamp, which was moving in a gust of wind from an open window. If I'd felt like an idiot before, now I felt like a total moron.

Thankfully that feeling was dispelled when Nagihiko and I realised he'd let the door shut too, which gave me a chance to hit him with my broomstick.

We had no choice but to 'explore' the haunted house.

* * *

It wasn't too bad at first, when we could laugh away the cheap pranks and 'scary' experiences from the light of a burning lantern.

But when we had walked through endless black corridors, and the light of the old-fashioned _oil_ lantern was quickly dying down, the cheap tricks didn't seem quite so laughable any more. Nagihiko's hand was nearly blue from my constant squeezing of it, but like the gentleman he was, he only complained once and then stopped when I sent him a death stare.

"Ah!" I yelped when a plastic ghost swung into our path, and Nagihiko swiped it away, laughing.

We ducked into an old classroom to avoid a splattering of water from the mouth of a clay witch model, and the door shut. Again.

I was becoming sick of this.

Nagihiko seemed suddenly spooked, gripping my arm and nearly crushing me by spinning around to face the window, where a tiny devil face stared at us. Iru.

She grinned wickedly and Nagihiko, not seeming to realise she was a chara, whimpered while I patted his head. I felt both smug and strangely electric from where he was gripping me. Strange. It didn't seem like typical fear.

She motioned to the latch and I pulled the window open.

"Where is everyone?" I hissed.

"I don't know!" she sung and then flew off. This was the point at which a gust of wind from the window blew the lantern out, leaving us in dark. I growled in frustration, and said Nagihiko's name.

No answer.

From a corner of the room, a stool toppled over, sending a tidal wave of crashing noises towards me. I cringed, but unafraid, tripped over it. Hah, I thought ironically, that would teach me about being unafraid.

The electric light of the classroom flickered on and off for a second, and I thought I saw the ghostly outline of Nagihiko in the corner. Thankful, I crawled towards it and clung hold of what I supposed was his hand.

It_ was_ a hand, but a limp one, with no skin. The cold bones became trapped around my own, and in my mind, I could see a grinning skeleton's face. I screamed, and couldn't stop shuddering until the skeleton hand was ripped from my own and replaced with a warm one, which squeezed reassuringly.

"It's only a plastic science skeleton," Nagihiko muttered gently and stroked my hair while I clung to him. I tried to stand up, but the shock made my legs give way.

"It's...only...temporary..." I protested when he swung me onto his back for a piggy back ride; something I hadn't had since I was at least six years old. it felt pretty nice, except for when I leant my head against his back and the beads in his hair dug into my face.

He managed to force the door open and struggled through the darkness back into the corridor.

"Am I heavy?" I asked, but his response was lost when all the doors of the classrooms swung open in invisible wind and starting banging.

"I have a broomstick!" I said desperately brandishing said instrument, and only managing to hit Nagihiko in the back of the head, to which he yelped and spun around, thinking some one was probably trying to attack him.

We ended up in a heap on the floor, both trying to cling to each other and then hit out at potential ghosts in succession.

There was silence then, and the lights went back on. We looked up in shock to see Tsukasa-san, Ikuto, Amu and all the others laughing down at us. We must have looked a sight; me with wild hair and my hat half on, waving a broomstick around, while Nagihiko was peering from underneath his loose bandana and had knotted masses of beaded hair gradually becoming tangled with my own.

They helped us disentangle from each other, and then explained that this had all been a massive joke on their part.

* * *

Nagihiko and I resolved not to be angry at them, since they had only tried to make me loosen up for Halloween, and 'rejoice' in the spirit of being scared.

Needless to say, I did not feel like rejoicing after that experience.

We said goodbye to Amu and the others then, promising to return in around an hour and help them clean up, but first we had an errand to run, to which no one questioned, since they were too busy laughing at their 'genius' prank.

What they didn't know is that we had tracked down the 'lost' charas, who were having a mini Halloween party of their own, and with the help of Iru, persuaded them to play a little game with the others, involving the 'Haunted House Extravaganza'.

Then we left, in the pitch black, all the while tailed by screams that emitted from the science block, which sounded much like our own had.

Revenge was sweet.

* * *

"That'll teach them!" Nagihiko laughed, fixing his bandana, while we sat on a bench in the park.

"I hope the charas have fun," I smirked, munching on more of Nagihiko's pastries. "Thanks for... y'know, the piggy back ride..." I added awkwardly.

Nagihiko smiled in response and then stood up, waving his plastic cutlass around.

"Hey, we're not too old for trick-or-treating... Right?" he asked uncertainly.

"Certainly not," I caught hold of his hand and started to drag him to where the Seiyo Elementary kids were accosting every household they could find.

"I think the others will be held-up for a while," I said, mock-seriously, and then hit Nagihiko with my broomstick.

"Hey!" he protested and tipped my hat off.

Halloween was gonna be the best this year.


End file.
